Description:
As a mirror fusion facility, the Tandem Mirror Experiment (TMX) at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (LLL) is both new and different. It utilizes over 23,000 ft/sup 2/ of work area in three buildings and consumes over 14 kWh of energy with each shot. As a systems design, the facility is broken into discreet functional regions. Among them are a mechanical vacuum pumping system, a liquid-nitrogen system, neutral-beam and magnet power supplies, tiered structures to support these supplies, a neutron-shielded vacuum vessel, a control area, and a diagnostics area. Constraints of space, time, and cost have all affected the design.

Description:
The reconfiguration of MFTF to a tandem mirror machine with thermal barriers has caused a significant expansion in the physical scope of plasma diagnostics. From a mechanical perspective, it complicates the plasma access, system interfaces, growth and environmental considerations. Conceptual designs characterize the general scope of the design and fabrication which remains to be done.

Description:
Designing the Baseball II-T laser system required addressing a number of mechanical parameters. Among them are low frequency floor vibrations, high acoustical noise levels, and large thermal fluctuations in the vicinity of the experiment. In addition, the 8-in. apertures from the 300-K environment of the laser system had to be compatible with the cryogenic environment of the superconducting Baseball magnet. This paper discusses these problems and describes their influence on the laser system design. (auth)

Description:
This paper describes the current design status of the plasma diagnostic system for MFTF-B. In this paper we describe the system requirement changes which have occurred as a result of the funded rescoping of the original MFTF facility into MFTF-B. We outline the diagnostic instruments which are currently planned, and present an overview of the diagnostic system.

Description:
The Mirror Fusion Test Facility (MFTF-B), under construction at LLNL, requires measurement of the neutral gas density in high magnetic fields near the plasma at several axial regions. This Background Gas Pressure (BGP) diagnostic will help us understand the role of background neutrals in particle and power balance, particularly in the maintenance of the cold halo plasma that shields the hot core plasma from the returning neutrals. It consists of several cold-cathode, magnetron-type gauges stripped of their permanent magnets, and utilizes the MFTF-B ambient B-field in strengths of 5 to 25 kG. Similar gauges have operated in TMX-U in B-fields up to 3 kG. To determine how well the gauges will perform, we assembled a test stand which operated magnetron gauges in an external, uniform magnetic field of up to 30 kG, over a pressure range of 1E-8 T to 1E-5 T, at several cathode voltages. This paper describes the test stand and presents the results of the tests.

Description:
A 94-GHz microwave interferometer has been designed for the Tandem Mirror Experiment Upgrade and the Mirror Fusion Test Facility to replace the 140-GHz system. The new system is smaller and has modular single-channel units designed for high reliability. It is magnetically shielded and can be mounted close to the machine, which allows the use of lower power solid-state sources. Test results of the 94-GHz prototype indicate that the phase resolution is better than 1/sup 0/, the Impatt FM noise is 5 MHz wide, and the Gunn FM noise is 6 kHz wide. This paper presents the antenna designs along with the test results and discusses the unique problems associated with diagnosing a high electron temperature plasma in the presence of electron cyclotron resonant heating.

Description:
The Tandem Mirror Experiment Upgrade (TMX Upgrade) vacuum system uses most of the vacuum system from the original TMX and substantially increases its capabilities. The vacuum system provides the main structure for the experimental apparatus, as well as providing and maintaining the vacuum environment. The vacuum vessel provides the structure supporting all magnets, as they are contained inside the vacuum vessel, all of the neutral-beam injectors, and the various diagnostics. The vessel provides the main vacuum enclosure and the various access ports required by the magnet system, injector system, internal vacuum system, and plasma diagnostics. The vacuum environment is created and maintained by two systems, the external vacuum system and the internal vacuum system. The external system consists of mechanical pumps, turbopumps, and cryopumps, and creates a vacuum inside the vessel down to a minimum pressure of 10/sup -6/ Torr. The internal vacuum system further reduces the pressure into the 10/sup -8/ Torr range and provides the fast pumping required to handle the excess gas from the neutral-beam injector system during a plasma shot. The internal vacuum system consists of titanium sublimators and liquid nitrogen (LN) liners that separate the vacuum vessel into various pumping regions.

Description:
Neutral-beam injection is a primary means of building high-energy plasmas in present mirror fusion machines. The injectors need periodic maintenance while a machine is operating, so isolation of them by valving is a desirable chracteristic. Because their energy densities have practical limits, the beams require large cross-sections. Thus, valves having apertures of 10 ft/sup 2/ would be common. Traditional cam-seated vacuum gate valves have been built this large, but they are bulky, costly, and heavy. Improvement is possible by use of an inflatable-bellows assembly for the valve gate. This paper describes the design of such a valve. The design allows a clear aperture of 20 by 36 in. with a valve body that is only 5-/sup 1///sub 4/ in. thick.

Description:
During the past 25 years, experiments with several magnetic mirror machines were performed as part of the Magnetic Fusion Energy (MFE) Program at LLL. The latest MFE experiment, the Mirror Fusion Test Facility (MFTF), builds on the advances of earlier machines in initiating, stabilizing, heating, and sustaining plasmas formed with deuterium. The goals of this machine are to increase ion and electron temperatures and show a corresponding increase in containment time, to test theoretical scaling laws of plasma instabilities with increased physical dimensions, and to sustain high-beta plasmas for times that are long compared to the energy containment time. This paper describes the diagnostic system being developed to characterize these plasma parameters.

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